Tag Archives: Gothic Knights

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I haven’t been posting but I have been buying! Here’s everything I’ve picked up in the last couple weeks online and at the record stores…..

Record Stores

Dream Theater – Black Clouds & Silver Linings (2009) – $15: The new Dream Theater came out last Tuesday and I had a choice of 2 stores to pick up the 3 CD limited edition: Newbury Comics or Best Buy. I went with Best Buy because it was $5 cheaper. The 3 CD set breaks down as follows: Disc 1 is the new studio album, Disc 2 is a bonus disc of 6 cover songs and Disc 3 is the studio album again but as instrumental mixes only. All together it’s 3 hours and 17 minutes of music on 3 CDs for the price of one regulary priced album…..a good deal!

Primal Fear – 16.6 (Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead) (2009) – $16: Picked this up a couple of weeks ago at Newbury Comics when the album was released officially in the U.S. The cool thing was that the only copy the store had was the European version with the 2 bonus tracks and the video…..I prefer the extra material even if that means paying a couple extra bucks. I have only had a few spins so far but it sounds like another updated sound added to the Classic Metal assault.

Spinal Tap – Back From the Dead (2009) – $9.99: New album from Spinal Tap, great sale price from Newbury Comics! A lot of extras included in the package: the CD has 19 songs (6 new and 13 re-recorded from the soundtrack), an hour long DVD and the CD packaging folds out to become paper dolls of the band and Stonehenge! The only complaint is that there is no slipcase to keep everything in but it’s definitely a cool way to put together a CD.

Axel Rudi Pell – Best Of (Anniversary Edition) (2009) – $8.99: I don’t have much Axel Rudi Pell in the collection except for a few of the newer records so I figured a retrospective release like this would give me a taste of some of the older material. I picked this up mostly based on the sale price and it fit in nicely with the Primal Fear and Spinal Tap purchases.

Ebay

Jester – Digitalia/Tales From The Boogieman (2000 reissue) – $2.50: Back when print fanzines were still a viable source of info, I heard about New Jersey’s Jester. I think this was around 1997 when their debut TALES FROM THE BOOGIEMAN was released on Pulse Records. I always wanted to check them out but I never got around to it and now the CD is out of print, same with DIGITALIA, now that Pulse Records is no more. Escape Music came around in 2000 and reissued DIGITALIA with new cover art and TALES as a bonus CD. Some retailers still have this for $17-$20 online but I was able to snag this on Ebay for less than $3.

Lita Ford – Dancin’ On The Edge (1984) – $21: I have been after this CD for a long time. I had it listed in the WANTED! column for about a year now and my patient searching brought me a copy at a decent price. $21 may seem like a high price to pay considering the original release was probably $12-$15 but this CD regularly goes over the $30 range. This was one of those short auctions (3 days) so I came in quick with a last minute bid.

Anvil – Plugged In Permanent (1996) – $22: I’m slowly filling all the holes in my Anvil collection after seeing the Anvil movie. I noticed that a lot of the later albums have Japanese pressings with bonus tracks and this album gives Japan one with ‘Stolen’. There were 2 copies on Ebay: this Japanese pressing from a seller I have bought from in the past and the regular U.S./Euro pressing without ‘Stolen’. Both were $17 so but the shipping was $2 more for the Japanese pressing. I paid the extra $2 for the extra track.

Online Stores

UFO – The Visitor (2009) – $22.50: I’ve had a promo copy of this album for a few months now but I have to have an actual copy when it comes to on of my favorite bands. The bonus track ‘Dancing With St. Peter’ isn’t on the promo and I wanted to hear the updated version by UFO…..the song was the title track of the Phil Mogg fronted side project $ign of 4. The album of the same name was released in 2002. The only copy of THE VISITOR readily available was the U.S. version without the extra song so I ordered the Euro version from HMV.com.

One of the things I’m doing now more then ever is ordering online. The UFO CD from HMV is what I consider a one time thing but I have been browsing NEH Records, Sentinel Steel and CD Inzane more often lately. There are just certain albums that the local record stores are not going to stock! So here’s my latest order from CD Inzane…..

Solna – Eurameric (2009) – $13: I knew nothing about this all-star project except for the fact that CD Inzane founder Zane Petersen (from China Blue)produced it and played drums. There are a lot of guests on this album including Ralf Scheepers (Primal Fear), Pamela Moore (Queensryche) and Alex De Rosso (Dokken). There are more people included and it kind of follows the path taken by other projects like Ayreon and Avantasia. I haven’t given it a spin yet but I’ve read some great reviews.

Solna – Sent From Heaven E.P. (2009) – $4: This 6 song E.P. was released prior to EURAMERIC and included 5 songs that are on the album and an E.P.-only bonus track titled ‘I Light A Candle Too’. Only 2000 copies were pressed and the CD was on sale for $3 + $1 shipping…..can’t beat that. I figured that I might as well grab the E.P. along with the proper album to have all the songs in the collection.

Bloodbound – Tabula Rasa (2009) – $12: I have to plead ignorance on Bloodbound because I’ve never actually heard any of the band’s music, the only thing I know is from the reviews I’ve read online and they all seem to be really positive about TABULA RASA. The album was $5 cheaper at CD Inzane than at NEH Records so I picked it up right away. I have the U.S./Euro version that includes a bonus video…..I hear the Japanese import has a bonus track instead.

Nocturnal Rites – The 8th Sin (2007) – $5: Over the years I have picked up almost all the the Nocturnal Rites albums as they have been released but, for some strange reason, I never bothered to pick up THE 8TH SIN a couple of years ago. I was going through the CD Inzane clearance section and there this CD was for $5! The bargain is better because it’s the limited edition with the bonus DVD with videos, live tracks, and documentaries on the band’s European Tour 2005 and Japanese Tour 2006. The regular version was $12 & the limited edition was $5…..easy choice! The bonus DVD is PAL format but my DVD-ROM drive on the computer plays PAL.

Gothic Knights – Up From The Ashes (2003) – $5: An online clearance section can be even more lucrative for finding CD treasure than your local record stores used bins! I couldn’t help but notice that this Gothic Knights album was a mere $5 so I grabbed it too! I looked at this album on Ebay for $15 to $20 depending on the seller…..even Sentinel Steel couldn’t match the price on a used copy! Now I only need the out of print debut from Gothic Knights.

U.D.O. – Infected E.P. (2009) – $12: I wasn’t going to make the same mistake of not ordering the E.P. that comes before the proper album like I did with THE WRONG SIDE OF MIDNIGHT E.P. in 2007 before the MASTERCUTOR album came out. U.D.O. always has E.P. exclusive songs and INFECTED is in different: 2 non-album tracks, a remix and a live track to go along with the title track that comes from the new upcoming record DOMINATOR. The E.P. is limited to 2222 copies worldwide so I acted fast.

Here we go again, another update on my neverending CD hunting! As I mentioned in my last safari update, money is tight and the economy is getting worse so my disposable income for music has taken a huge hit. The good news is that I’m so far behind in listening to CDs that I have enough new music to last until 2009! There are a few albums I picked up when they came out that I haven’t updated you on and I went out today and picked up a few discs at the record store today. Here’s what I’ve had for a few weeks…..

Venom – Hell (2008) – $13: This came out back in August but got overshadowed by other new releases. I grabbed this at the sale price when I actually saw this in the record store’s main display! The store got 2 copies: one went to me and the other to the guy who runs the Metal section at the store. I remember him telling me that he figured I’d be in for it.

DragonForce – Ultra Beatdown (2008) – $17: I picked this up the same day as the venom CD and I ended up dropping the extra $4 for the album with the bonus DVD. The deluxe set also had two bonus tracks so I guess I made the extra 4 bucks worth it! I’ll be honest here, I’m not the biggest DragonForce fan in the world, I have VALLEY OF THE DAMNED (2003) but I never bothered to pick up the rest. With all the hype the band has received from their appearance in the video game Guitar Hero III with ‘Through The Fire And Flames’, I figured I’d pick up the new record and listen to the debut. For some reason, DragonForce reminds me of Rhapsody (now called Rhapsody Of Fire) but the music is very different.

Here’s what I picked up today…..

Tesla – Forever More (2008) – $9.99: Can’t pass up that price! FOREVER MORE came out last week and I forgot so when I saw the promo poster on the front door of the record store, I added it to my list. I had a short list anyway so I didn’t mind adding this one in. This album has been streaming online for a couple of months but I haven’t heard any of it, if it’s as good as INTO THE NOW (2004), I’ll be happy. It doesn’t seem like it’s been 4 years since the last Tesla studio album…..

Yngwie Malmsteen’s Rising Force – Perpetual Flame (2008) – $12.88: This was the only album on my list today. I ran right out to pick this one up because I have to hear how Tim Owens does working with Yngwie and if this is going to be a train wreck of an album. I haven’t enjoyed an Yngwie album since 1997’s FACING THE ANIMAL (Mats Leven on vocals) but I seem to keep buying his albums. I checked on this when I got home from the hunt and it seems that I have every Yngwie album except for ATTACK!! (2002). I have that soft spot for Yngwie, he’s made some solid albums but everything after 1997 has bored me. I skipped ATTACK!! because I was unhappy with ALCHEMY (1999) and WAR TO END ALL WARS (2000) but I did pick up UNLEASH THE FURY (2005). The Metal guy at the record shop says it’s a good album, we’ll see…..

We Wish You A Metal Xmas And A Headbanging New Year (2008) – $9.99: A late addition to today’s buying! I had heard about this project featuring Lemmy, Geoff Tate, Dio, Alice Cooper and a whole bunch more. This is another one of those albums produced by Bob Kulick that features all these Heavy Metal heroes doing covers. Usually it’s for a tribute album but I’m getting sucked in to the Xmas albums. I’ve always been big into Trans-Siberian Orchestra, I changed my tune on the Twisted Sister Xmas album, and Helix has one coming out too! I figured for ten bucks it would be a cool holiday spin.

On to Ebay…..

Gothic Knights – Kingdom Of The Knights (1999) – $6: Finally! After 10 years I finally pick up this album! I have had this album in my favorite searches on Ebay for a long time and it always comes up, I just never pull the trigger. I was watching another album and I went to view the seller’s other items and this showed up at the top of the seller’s list. I ended up being the only bidder. Now I have to update this album’s WANTED.

Halloween – No One Gets Out (1991/2001 reissue) – $13.50: It certainly is the right time of year for buying Halloween albums! I’ve been meaning to pick up all of Halloween’s albums for a couple of years now, especially the band’s own reissues with bonus tracks. Unfortunately, this album is out of print and the band isn’t making anymore for sale at their website so I had to grab it. The price the band was selling it for was $15 so I saved $1.50, the shipping is also discounted because I bought the Gothic Knights CD from this seller too. (Total shipping is $4 for both discs, I didn’t include that in the price.)

WANTED

Gothic Knights – Kingdom Of The Knights (1999)

I have been online since the Fall of 1998 and I have been discovering new bands all over the world with this new invention called “the Internet”. In early ’99, I remember reading reviews on a Metal website I found and they were raving about Gothic Knights, a Power Metal band from Brooklyn, NY. First thing that caught my eye was the album cover, the second was that the band was from Brooklyn. Power Metal from Brooklyn? I thought that only came out of Europe in 1999! I knew nothing about the band, never heard a note, but I knew I wanted it…..it went on the list.

I found a copy shortly thereafter at the local record store but the price was close to $20, the CD was considered an import. I passed on it but I went online to see if could be ordered online. Sure enough, the album was released on Sentinel Steel, a Metal label and an online store. Knowing I could get the album anytime online direct from the label, I waited…..and waited…..and waited. A few years went by and the album went out of print, only 3000 copies were made worldwide. So the last few years have been spent tracking this album on Ebay but the price has always creeped up to the $20 range. Will I ever learn? Just spend the extra couple of bucks already!

Sentinel Steel is one of my favorite online stores and they just happened to announce an additional 666 copies printed and added to the initial run of KINGDOM OF THE KNIGHTS. The plan is that the band is going to re-record the vocals with new singer Rick Sanchez and remix the album for release in 2010. Not sure why it will take 2 years but copies are available for $10.88 plus shipping.

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